Has it really been less than a year since AMC announced that they were finally moving on the long-awaited Rick Grimes standalone series? Amazingly, yes, and after that early January news arrived, two other spinoffs — the thrilling throwback of Dead City and the big ass-kicker of Daryl Dixon — already released first seasons with followups in the works. Next up? The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
That would be the official title for the “Rick Grimes and Michonne” series starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira. Rick’s return, of course, has been a long time coming, although to be fair, it probably feels like the wait has dragged on forever (both IRL and in The Walking Dead universe), so let’s hash out why, along with what is coming.
Plot
Since it’s been awhile, let’s talk about the timeline, which is slightly blurry but not in an overwhelming sense. To clarify, Rick left The Walking Dead in Season 9, Episode 5, “What Comes After.” That episode aired in 2018, after which we heard both reports and supplementary speculation about a Rick Grimes movie. That never happened, given various other reasons that likely included the pandemic, but in The Walking Dead time, the show ended after Season 11, and Rick had been gone for a decade. The current three spinoff shows pick up shortly after the finale and run concurrently. Will they ever intersect? That has been neither confirmed nor denied.
Rick had ended his very bad final appearance by falling off a horse, and of course, he had the bad luck of being impaled. He freed himself, got pursued by a horde of walkers, and then blew up a bridge to save his people. However and instead of dying from his surely mortal (without intervention) wounds, Rick got swept off by Janis/Anne and the helicopter people, who ended up being the CRM. He was kept in servitude this whole time, as revealed in the series finale.
In the spinoff, Michonne will have been searching for Rick since the end of Season 10 after leaving Judith and R.J. (Rick Grimes Jr.) behind in the Alexandria Safe-Zone. Things have obviously changed at home, and hopefully, Rick and Michonne will make their way back to the kiddos. (If you’ll recall, also, TWD ended with Judith and R.J. declaring, “We’re the ones who live.”) A teaser, thus far, has shown that the first season of this spinoff sees Rick bloodied (i.e., normal physically) and (probably emotionally) worse for wear.
This moment ^^ (from that teaser) has sparked speculation that Rick will (also finally) end up losing his right hand like he did in the comics. We can probably expect him to be a little more off the rails, given what he has surely been through in CRM captivity. Generally, it’s no surprise that Rick looks like hell, and Michonne, the machete-wielding badass, is looking much better.
Janis/Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) will make an appearance in this spinoff, and that suggests that Michonne might be busting Rick out of CRM custody. Will there be revenge/hell to pay for how Rick ended up with the helicopter people? His life was saved, but he seemingly endured hellish conditions in the aftermath, being away from the group and especially Michonne and the children. Yet this will also be reunion time — Michonne had set off to find Rick after discovering that he was still alive after finding his possessions — so expect a fair amount of passion. I mean, Rick and Michonne will obviously have business to take care of, but they are also only human and surely have some pent up “energy” to dispense with.
Would you like a nebulous and existential-sounding synopsis? Of course, and there will be more war to come:
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?
Cast
Obviously, Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira are the only actors who could ever step into character as Rick and Michonne. As mentioned already, Pollyanna McIntosh) will reprise her role of Janis/Anne from The Walking Dead and The World Beyond. Additionally, Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer) will embody Pearl Thorne, and Matt Jeffries will portray Nat.
Release Date
Although some of the promotional material for this series has looked Valentine-y, Rick and Michonne will flout the actual holiday and arrive later in the month. Expect this spinoff to debut on February 25.
Trailer
AMC released a sneak peek with some footage and Danai talking about the “crazy love” of these two survivors.
And the aforementioned teaser trailer surfaced to confirm that Rick unsurprisingly hasn’t been doing so hot.
At long last, Rick Grimes will hopefully not ride a horse in the The Walking Dead realm again when The Ones Who Live arrive.